The Israel Air Force on Thursday killed a fifth Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist leader since the start of “Operation Shield and Arrow,” the IDF said in a statement.
Ahmed Abu-Deka, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad rocket launching force, was targeted. Four others were wounded in the strike on a house in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian media reports.
Abu-Deka was a deputy of Ali Ghali, the commander of PIJ’s rocket force who was killed by Israeli forces early Thursday along with two other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza.
According to the IDF, Abu-Deka was responsible for rocket launches in recent days, specifically in the city of Sderot.
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“Abu-Deka operated to advance, plan and execute rocket fire attacks towards Israel. He [also] took part in the barrages of rockets fired towards Israeli civilians during operations ‘Guardian of the Walls’ [in May 2021] and ‘Breaking Dawn’ [in August 2022],” the IDF said. A top IDF commander said that the military waited two days to kill Abu-Deka, as he had been using civilians as human shields. “This morning we targeted the commander of Islamic Jihad’s missile array in Gaza. Now, just an hour ago, we targeted his deputy as well,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to a military base.
“I have already said: Anyone who attempts to harm us—their blood will be spilled,” he added.
Israel carried out targeted killings of three PIJ leaders overnight on Monday, which started “Operation Shield and Arrow.” The three terrorists were identified by the IDF as Jahed Ahnam, Khalil Bahitini and Tarek Azaldin.
